The RoI of Empathy

Doug Dietz an industrial designer with GE Healthcare was very proud of the high-tech MRI machine he’d designed, which was nominated for the International Design Excellence Awards.

That is until he saw the first patient – a little girl – crying on her way to his scanner to get her first MRI.

If you’ve ever had to get an MRI scan, you know that it can be pretty scary for adults, let alone a 6 year old – the claustrophobic space, the flashing lights and the constant din of the machine!

Dietz’ excitement quickly dimmed, when he realized that his state-of-the-art scanner was nothing more than a big monster of a machine threatening to swallow little children.

Deeply disturbed, Dietz went back to the drawing board, this time determined to design a scanner that children would love.

And from this stemmed the GE Adventure series – a scanner where children could chose to go on a pirate adventure, go underwater diving or set off camping in a forest. There was a visual redesigning of the room and the equipment with colour, stories and music to enrich the experience. The staff too were trained on a fun “we-are-going-on-an-adventure” script.

And the RoI was undeniable.

Patient satisfaction scores went up 90%, the need for sedation reportedly dropped from 80% to 10% of cases, and the time needed for each scan dropped significantly, meaning more patients could be scanned in a day, which in turn led to more revenue for the hospital.

But the power of the story goes beyond mere numbers.

The highlight for Dietz was when one girl came running to her mother after her scan and asked “Mommy can we please come back tomorrow?”

Now the transition from Fear to Fun…

That is priceless!